Art and Design Commons^™

I'M Right Here., Emily Gadzinski

Honors Theses

In order to survive the mundane, monotonousness of my depression, I performed an identity, a repetition of actions and reactions. This performance was the barrier between two selves, my outward expression and my internal experience. “I’m right here”, the title of my exhibition, is my way of asserting and re-claiming my identity. By re-claiming the spaces that my body and mind occupy, I’m able to maintain power and control over my emotional struggle, the perception of myself, and the trajectory of my life. The concept of my thesis was demonstrated through four pieces, which included a video, interactive installation, sculpture, …

Taking Art To The Next Level: Integration Of Advanced Placement Studio Art, 2-D Design, Krystal Kingsley

Masters Theses

Teaching High School art has brought me great joy. Along the way I have been challenged with many difficult questions. One that beckoned me to direct and intentional action is “how do I help students take their art work to the next level?” This project is the result of my personal discovery and development of an Advanced Placement Studio Art 2-D Design course. My research of multiple sources led to the development of an Advanced Placement (AP) approved course which includes: a syllabus, multiple breadth lessons, project rubrics, critiques, sketchbook assignments, summer homework, and a guide for helping students develop …

Fostering The Efficacious Adolescent Artist, Regina Beltowski

Masters Theses

Low self-esteem and insecurity is common among adolescents. In the secondary-school art room, students often stop engaging in art practice, believing that they lack talent, when the truth is that they lack specific skills. Students who are fortunate to have teachers who help them develop their skills experience a boost in feelings of self-efficacy, and often reengage with art production. This thesis project focuses on strengthening students’ self-efficacy in the visual arts at the secondary level. Clarifying the differences between related terms – self-esteem, self-concept, and perceived control – I focus on self-efficacy as a characteristic that plays a significant …

Choice--‐Based Art: Students Who Create, Not Replicate, Hillary K. Moczerad

Masters Theses

The problem that I researched in today’s art education world is how to teach our art students to be problem solving, confident, independent thinkers. It seems that in a classroom that is supposed to be full of innovation and creativity, it is currently falling flat. Through research, I discovered a teaching methodology called Choice-­‐Based Art that claims to eliminate these problems in the art room through student-­‐directed learning and choice while still delivering art curriculum. In order to test these theories, I aligned my classroom with the demands of the methodology and planned a field test with two groups of …

Creative Concentrations: A Secondary Design Curriculum, Linnea Roberta Gustafson

Masters Theses

Design education, as distinct from art education, has been overlooked as an area of student learning, creative expression, and career potential. This thesis explores the benefits of design education for students at the secondary level, when identities are being formed and areas of future study and work are considered. Guided by the newly published National Core Arts Standards, this paper provides a model design curriculum that introduces secondary students to a design-oriented view of the world, explores design principles through real-world applications, and calls attention to professional career options.

All lessons in the curriculum encourage creative approaches to solving design …

The Waste Land, Mariesa Desantis

Honors Theses

Designing a handmade book with a concentration on the tactile qualities and ability to engage the senses will heighten the reader’s experience and revive tangible books’ relevance in a digital society. By driving readers to become physically involved and relating directly to the literature, the book will act as a vehicle that foreshadows the literature, so the readers can become more involved in the story.

My primary goal of my project is to open up new possibilities for printed book design that can become more common in society, while also keeping printed books relevant for as long as possible. The …